Eben Ezer Chef Brenda Moreno dishes on food

Eben Ezer chef Brenda Moreno has been preparing delicious meals for Eben Ezer residents and events the facility caters for five years. (Lisa Jager/News-Tribune)

If you’ve been fortunate enough to have enjoyed the delicious food at one of Eben Ezer’s recent annual luaus in June, you have Eben Ezer chef Brenda Moreno to thank.Moreno has been the force behind the food at Eben Ezer for the last five years, creating tasty food for its residents, as well for various events around Brush including the recent Ladies Spring Fashion Show, a fundraiser for the Save Our Sands. Eben Ezer hosted a dessert table at the show that featured a variety of colorful and resplendent desserts created by Moreno such as sour cream pound cake with lemon sauce, mocha mousse, raspberry cream parfait and a chocolate fountain with strawberries for dipping.Moreno, who is originally from Michigan, said when she was growing up on a farm she didn’t like to cook and that, “When it came time to cook I would head to the barns. I’d rather be out working with the cows than in the kitchen.”It was working in restaurants as a teenager when she discovered she enjoyed cooking through the work of two chefs in particular whose food preparation Moreno said “just fascinated me.”Although she didn’t immediately pursue a culinary career Moreno eventually received her culinary training at the then Denver Culinary Arts program and then went on to work at Sodexo in Fort Collins as an executive chef.

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Following a reorganization at Sodexo, she found herself looking for a new chef position, put her resume on the internet and was contacted by Eben Ezer. Moreno said she had never worked in health care, but after some thought she decided to accept the position.She said the food at retirement homes, as well as in other health care settings, is different and of better quality that it used to be, saying that “the generation that we’re serving now is used to a little more types of styles of food. They expect more from their food than offered in the past and have more say in the food.”For the day-to-day meals at Eben Ezer, which serves about 170 meals each day prepared by a staff of six, Moreno said the residents generally prefer comfort food such as meat loaf and fried chicken. She said she has tried to introduce different cuisines, such as Italian and Chinese, during her five years but the residents tend to gravitate back to the comfort foods, which she tries to make “a little more upscale.”She said residents are willing to try new things, especially at Eben Ezer’s special parties, such as the luau, or other activities. Residents provide feedback to Moreno about their meals at the residents’ council meetings, and she said they can be very vocal about whether or not they like it.Meeting the needs of each individual resident and so many different cooks, many of whom prepared their own meals for many years, can be challenging, Moreno said. She works hard to meet their needs, meeting with them one-on-one to discuss their wishes and even making trips to Walmart for food items a particular resident likes, reflective of what Moreno said of Eben Ezer being “a very caring community that goes above and beyond for neighbor’s (residents) needs.”The residents’ say in their food also includes Residents’ Friday in the dining room where every item on the menu each Friday afternoon is a resident’s choice.Eben Ezer also sometimes uses individual resident’s recipes and offers a Cooking with the Chef program with Moreno the fourth Friday of the month, along with other activities that allow residents to get back in the kitchen and cook. Catering projects such as the fashion show allow Moreno to further stretch her culinary wings. When Moreno caters food for Eben Ezer she said she has “a lot of freedom there. Every time we are catering I like to do something different.”She asks those organizing the catered event for suggestions and then provides a variety of ideas. Moreno said she herself doesn’t gravitate toward a particular cuisine and that she “likes to explore and be challenged in food,” which could be why she has a personal collection of some 200 cookbooks. The need to explore may also explain why she said she changes the menu every year for Eben Ezer’s luau, saying “the only thing that will be the same at the luau will be the hog.”